Meeting in the ancient Italian town of Frascati, an ex-history professor, his wife, their friend, and an enigmatic scientist discover that their lives are in danger due to a circumstance that each controls in some way. IP.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
In a plot that fluctuates between the clever and the contrived, Sullivan's (Games of the Blind) four fools?Jon Anders, a burned-out professor; Vida, his dynamic, dissatisfied younger wife; Jim Quarrel, their happy-go-lucky friend; and Geoffrey Fry, an eminent physicist obsessively developing a theory of "meaningful coincidences"?converge in an edgy menage in which their histories and fates successively loop and overlap. Vida has pulled Jon and Jim to Italy with her, where she will pursue graduate studies in science and history, ostensibly under Fry. But the professor's pursuit of a grand unifying theory for everything touches off a series of accidents and intentions. Told through the skeptical, slightly obtuse Jon, this spiraling narrative turns on the various revelations of each character's fairly lurid significant experiences in life, which link them increasingly and unexpectedly to one another. Their confessions and discoveries, such as the real story of Vida's childhood trauma, are unfortunately more surprising to the somewhat flat characters than they will be to the reader, exposing the hand of the author as much as fate's. Still, Sullivan's storytelling and prose are deft enough to keep her characters' true motives at least slightly ambiguous in this metaphysical answer to The Good Soldier.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Ex-professor John Anders and his friend Jim follow John's wife, Vida, to Italy in an obsessive quest to research Geoffrey Fry, an enigmatic scholar of coincidence theory. In an obscure research institute in Frascati, Fry pursues his study with experiments ranging from the Tarot to radioactive decay while Vida pursues him with more than academic interest. As tensions mount, relations among the four unravel, revealing dark secrets from Vida's past and menacing threats of murder. This novel features a rather spare plot told in an unusually elaborate style. Readers expecting an absorbing psychological thriller will find Sullivan's fourth novel (following Games of the Blind, LJ 4/15/94) disappointing. Not recommended.?Susan Clifford, Hughes Aircraft Co. Lib., Los Angeles
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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